Amberkits Dark forest lessons
by Amberflame805
Summary: Amberkit wanders into the dark forest and talks with its residents.


Amberkit opened her eyes to find darkness. The air smelt stale and the ground was damp under her tiny paws. _Where am I_? She didn't recognize the location at all. Then a memory made her eyes sparkle with recognition. She was in the Dark forest! A shudder shook her small frame, for she had heard horrible stories about this place, and its inhabitants.

"Why it's a kit!" Amberkit jumped at the cool silky voice behind her.

"Lets kill it." She flinched at the second low rasp that spoke of her doom. She turned and saw a dappled female cat behind her. A brown tom stood need to the dappled female. _That tom must be Brokenstar! _She felt terror stream through her veins as she remembered the terrible stories she had heard about him.

"No, maybe we can use it." She saw a huge tabby tom emerge from the bushes followed by a tabby with a white chest and ice blue eyes. _Tigerstar and Hawkfrost! _

"Why waste our time? Her death will show the clans that we are everlasting!" Amberkit flinched at Hawkfrost's cruel words.

"No! I just came to ask questions!" Amberkit tried to find courage as she spoke.

"Questions? Then we will answer them. What does it matter? A dead kit can't talk." _Mapleshade! That must be Mapleshade! _

"Well, I just wanted to know about life really." She shivered as the hostile cats advanced on her.

"Ask away little one. You will be dead in the finish anyway." Mapleshade smirked.

"What is death really?" Amberkit watched as Dark forest cats stopped and gaped at her. Who was this foolish kit that came to this condemned land to ask questions?

"Death is the destruction of all your dreams. It is Starclans way of mocking us. We were so close to what we wanted when we died, and Starclan ripped that all away from us!" Tigerstar barred his fangs at her. She nodded.

"What is pain?" She looked up at the shocked faces around her. She could tell that this wasn't the kind of questions they expected.

"Pain is a flame. It burns, like a thousand claws ripping through your flesh. It makes you feel helpless as a kit; it will devastate you. For it is unrelenting, unstoppable; like a fire it shreds everything and consumes you" Hawkfrost growled.

"What is helplessness?"

"To feel helpless it watching your son drown alone and scared, while all you can do is watch."  
"It is being blind in the camp of the enemy, alone and unsure if you will live."

"It is watching your kits drown and being powerless to help them. Every time I close my eyes I see them. I should have saved them. I failed them."

"It is watching your brother drown next to you. I was so close to him, I heard his screams, his pain. And there was nothing I could do."

"What is loss?"

"Loss is being the most powerful ruler the forest has seen, then have that stripped away from you by the paws of a medicine cat. I had everything! And she took that from me, including my vision."

"Loss is having beautiful kits, so full of life, and a mate that loves you. Then they are ripped from your paws, torn from my grasp. Then Starclan damns you for the horrendous crime of loving."

"What is love?" Amberkit asked. Tigerstar rose to his paws to answer.

"Love is something soft and warm and beautiful. You should treasure it. It brings you pleasure, but also pain. Yet-" Mapleshade interrupted.

"Why are you telling her lies? All love brings you is agony and betrayal! I loved, and look where I am! Cursed, doomed. Never love, ever kit."

Amberkit noticed that Tigerstar seemed uncomfortable, for he had loved and he knew that in both Brokenstar's and Mapleshade's eyes love was weak. _Mapleshade is condemned. I pity her, for her only crime was to love. _

"What is betrayal?"

"Betrayal is risking everything for your half-brother, only to have him turn on, rip away everything you worked for!"

"Betrayal is loving someone, giving your all to a tom- only for him to abandon you when you need help most."

"What is suffering?"

"This is having life ripped from you nine times. To feel despair as you see your lives work go up in blood."

"Kit, we have all suffered. We still are. Every time I close my eyes, I see my kits drowning. See there tiny paws flailing defenselessly, and I blame myself for their deaths. I should have saved them. Brokenstar has his vision ripped from him. Tigerstar tried to do what he thought was best for the clans, and in the end he was forced to pay with his lives for it. Hawkfrost watched his own brother drown in front of him, heard his screams of agony. Our lives were never easy; we all suffered greatly."

"Thank you for telling me." Amberkit nodded at them.

"Oh don't thank us, you won't live long enough for that." Brokenstar crouched before her, a smirk on his face.

"Wait!" Mapleshade stalked closer. "You look just like her you know. Just like my beautiful kit. Starclan rejected her too. All of my kits souls were lost, just like Scourge." Amberkit nodded, unsure why Mapleshade had told her this, but knowing the injustice of what Starclan had done. Just then the area around her began to blur. _I'm waking up_.

Dovewing smiled at her beautiful kits. _Oh Amberkits awake!_

Amberkit thought about what she had learned. _They got sent to the Dark forest to suffer, but it seems to me that they already were suffering. _Amberkit made a choice then and there that she would never make the same mistakes they did. This must have been their last stand, for they were gone, killed in the last battle. She had learned a lot through this. She would stand tall through everything. _I am sorry for your suffering. I will always remember what you shared with me. I won't make the same mistakes you did; I will live my life to the fullest. Thank you, for you have saved me from your fate. Goodbye._ And in her head she could see all of them watching her. They dipped their heads and slowly faded away. They were gone forever, and no one would ever fall prey to them again. Yet Amberkit also felt grief for them. They had tried, and failed. _But I have learned from their mistakes, never again will such suffering turn innocent kits into monsters. May wherever your souls go, may they find peace and happiness. _


End file.
